Columbia Law School removed a questionable admission requirement for transfer students on Monday after The Washington Free Beacon inquired that the application process appeared to have a portion used to bypass the U.S. Supreme Court ban on affirmative action.

Just before SCOTUS broke for recesses at the end of June, a landmark ruling from the court said race-based admissions programs at Harvard University violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and the University of North Carolina programs violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The decision now profoundly affects the admissions processes at universities across the country.

But despite the nation’s highest court eliminating universities’ ability to accept applicants based on race, some have indicated that they would search for a loophole in the ruling.

On Monday morning, Columbia Law School’s admissions page reportedly said all transfer applicants must submit a 90-second video statement addressing random questions “to provide the Admissions Committee with additional insight into their personal strengths,” according to the Free Beacon.

But the video statements from transfer applicants only appeared on the law school’s website after the Supreme Court ruled against affirmative action policies.

Columbia’s decision “has all the hallmarks of a willful effort to evade the requirements of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act,” Edward Blum, the founder of the nonprofit legal advocacy organization Students for Fair Admissions, told the Free Beacon. “What is a 90-second video supposed to legitimately convey that a written statement could not?”

Blum’s organization took the legal challenge to the nation’s highest court after accusing the so-called elite universities of unfairly factoring race into their admissions processes. The group pointed to the high test scores of rejected Asian American and white applicants. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled against Harvard and UNC.

Following the Free Beacon’s report, a law school spokesman claimed the application’s video statement component — which was first introduced before the Supreme Court ruling in a pilot program — had been a misunderstanding. By 6:00 p.m. on Monday, officials removed the portion from the school’s website.

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“Video statements will not be required as part of the Fall 2024 J.D. application when it becomes available in September,” the law school told the Free Beacon in a statement. “It was inadvertently listed on the Law School’s website and has since been corrected.”

Campus Reform, a watchdog group, reported that some colleges have drummed up other ways to inquire about a students’ race, including Sarah Lawrence College in New York, which asks applicants how the SCOTUS ruling has personally affected them, according to the New York Post.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called out President Joe Biden’s disastrous economic policies this week that have led to one of the “Big Three” credit agencies lowering the United States’ rating by a tick on Tuesday.

Fitch Ratings downgraded the country’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating from top-rated “AAA” to “AA+” in a move that could lead to higher interest rates and borrowing costs. It follows the federal government narrowly avoiding a default on its debt earlier this summer and several weeks ahead of a possible shutdown if a politically-divided Congress fails to come to an agreement on spending for the next fiscal year.

“@FitchRatings’ downgrade of the nation’s credit rating from AAA to AA+ is a result of frivolous spending and ballooning national debt for programs like the CARES and ‘Inflation Reduction’ Acts,” DeSantis wrote on Twitter. “Florida’s AAA rating remains the standard-bearer, serving as the nation’s blueprint for fiscal responsibility.”

“In FL, we have run large budget surpluses and have paid off nearly 25% of the state debt,” he added. “National economic decline is a choice.”

.@FitchRatings’ downgrade of the nation's credit rating from AAA to AA+ is a result of frivolous spending and ballooning national debt for programs like the CARES and "Inflation Reduction" Acts. Florida's AAA rating remains the standard-bearer, serving as the nation's blueprint… https://t.co/ASwenYAz11

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) August 2, 2023

Former President Donald Trump later responded in his own social media post: “Fitch just downgraded U.S. Debt. First time in many years. WOW!”

Fitch said in a press release that the rating downgrade “reflects the expected fiscal deterioration over the next three years, a high and growing general government debt burden, and the erosion of governance relative to ‘AA’ and ‘AAA’ rated peers over the last two decades that has manifested in repeated debt limit standoffs and last-minute resolutions.”

Fitch indicated that the change was a long time coming, noting “there has been a steady deterioration in standards of governance over the last 20 years, including on fiscal and debt matters, notwithstanding the June bipartisan agreement to suspend the debt limit until January 2025.”

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The credit agency, which had placed the U.S. government’s “AAA” rating on a “negative” watch this past May, also cited other factors in announcing the change on Tuesday, including projections that show “tighter credit conditions, weakening business investment, and a slowdown in consumption will push the U.S. economy into a mild recession.”

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the White House issued separate statements that each said they “strongly disagree” with the change. While Yellen called the decision “arbitrary and based on outdated data,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre waded into politics.

“The ratings model used by Fitch declined under President Trump and then improved under President Biden, and it defies reality to downgrade the United States at a moment when President Biden has delivered the strongest recovery of any major economy in the world,” Jean-Pierre said. “And it’s clear that extremism by Republican officials — from cheerleading default, to undermining governance and democracy, to seeking to extend deficit-busting tax giveaways for the wealthy and corporations — is a continued threat to our economy.”

It’s been more than a decade since the first and last time the U.S. faced such a downgrade. In 2011, S&P bumped the U.S. long-term rating from its “AAA” perch to “AA+” — where it stands today — citing “political brinkmanship” and the debt burden shortly after then-President Barack Obama signed legislation to lift the debt ceiling just days before it was estimated the U.S. could have defaulted on its financial obligations.

After Fitch announced its downgrade on Tuesday, following years of rising U.S. government budget numbers and the debt doubling since 2011 to more than $32 trillion, Republicans argued the change was an indicator of too much spending and borrowing.

“Today’s decision by Fitch Ratings to downgrade U.S. sovereign debt to ‘AA+’ is yet another sign that incessant and irresponsible borrowing to fund bigger government is not without real repercussions,” Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) said in a post to X. “I’ve been outspoken in my belief that we need to get America’s fiscal house in order before it’s too late. Fitch’s downgrade should be seen as exactly what it is — a warning that continuing down the path of out-of-control borrowing will and does have serious consequences.”

Daniel Chaitin contributed to this report.